. Seyed Reza Mirsoleymani; . Camelia Rohani; . Mahsa Matbouei; . Malihe Nasiri; . Parvaneh Vasli
Volume 7, Issue 5 , September and October 2017, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Caregiver burden threatens the psychological, emotional, functional and evenphysical health of caregivers. The aims of this study were to determine caregiver burden and ...
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BACKGROUND: Caregiver burden threatens the psychological, emotional, functional and evenphysical health of caregivers. The aims of this study were to determine caregiver burden and familydistress and the relationship between them, also to explore predictors of caregiver burden in a sampleof Iranian family caregivers of cancer patients.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross‑sectional study with correlational design. A total of 104family caregivers of cancer patients were asked to respond to the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI)and the Family Distress Index (FDI) together with a sociodemographic questionnaire. For evaluatingthe relationship between CBI and FDI scores, the Pearson’s product‑moment correlation was used.In addition, multiple linear regression analysis was applied to explore the predictive factors ofcaregiver burden.RESULTS: A high burden was experienced by almost half of the caregivers (48.1%). The FDImean score was 9.76 ± 5.40 ranged from 0 to 24. A strong positive correlation was found betweenthe caregiver burden and family distress (r = 0.76). Multiple linear regression results showed thepredictive role of FDI score (β = 0.71, P = 0.001), patient’s gender (β = −0.25, P = 0.001), and earlycancer diagnosis (β =0.13, P = 0.027) in caregiver burden. They could explain 65% of variance inthe level of burden in family caregivers.CONCLUSION: Family nurses should consider the caregivers burden and vulnerability of familieswith cancer patient, especially if the patient is a male or has a new diagnosis. They should alsodesign special programs for the whole family as a system that family can adapt to the new situation.